Strategy

A child nutritional training session taking place to combat malnutrition

Promoting gender equality and children’s rights is central to Plan's strategy in Mali.

From tackling infant mortality and malnutrition, to improving access to education, Plan Mali works to have a positive impact on all children’s lives.

Issues affecting children

Female genital mutilation is still a problem in Mali. With no official laws making it illegal, and communities not being aware of the health risks, almost 84% of females are genitally mutilated each year.

Lack of education, particularly for children under 5, is also an issue. Less than 5% of children have access to pre-school, meaning that children often do not begin their education until they attend primary school.

Key goals

Plan’s works to achieve the following goals to ensure children grow well in a healthy and safe environment

Children are active and participate in the development process

Adults, particularly women, acquire skills in literacy and life skills for the livelihood of their families and communities

The capacity of communities and civil society is enhanced and they are well organised to protect children again abuses and malpractices.

Progress

Plan has accomplished a lot in Mali, but more remains to be done. As well as providing communities with schools for their children, Plan has also managed to provide some communities with water pumps and a clean, drinkable water source.

Plan has also registered almost 48% of children in Mali, providing them with a birth certificate and an official identity, allowing them to more easily enrol in school and access their rights.

Maternal and child health is important in Mali. Setting up health clinics and providing healthcare to severely malnourished children has helped Plan to bring down mortality rates by over a fifth since 1996*.

Plan has also successfully integrated environmental and personal hygiene and sanitation programmes into communities.This has helped prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera.

Preparing for disasters is also an achievement for Plan, preparing communities and training mayors and councils on what to do should a disaster happen. Plan has helped create risk maps to track villages most likely to be affected by a disaster and creating an early warning system within these villages to alert everyone. Plan has also been working hard to get children involved with rebuilding their communities after a disaster strikes.